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Musical Journeys WEEKLY STREAMING PROGRAMS Episode 1 Notes Milwaukee Symphony Musical Journeys WEEKLY STREAMING PROGRAMS Episode 1 Notes AARON COPLAND Born 14 November 1900; Brooklyn, New York Died 2 December 1990; New York, New York Quiet City Composed: 1939; revised 1940 First performance: 28 January 1941; New York, New York In 1939, Aaron Copland was called upon to provide incidental music to Irwin Shaw’s Quiet City—for his cash-strapped friends in the Group Theatre. The play’s leftist political leanings—and the opportunity to work with talented, cutting-edge artists on socially relevant issues—drew Copland to the project. Though the production failed, the following year the composer fashioned portions of the score into a ten-minute orchestral piece. Decades later, in conversation with oral historian Vivian Perlis, the composer recalled: Quiet City was billed as a “realistic fantasy,” a contradiction in terms that only meant the stylistic difference made for difficulties in production. The script was about a young trumpet player who imagined the night thoughts of many different people in a great city and played trumpet to express his emotions and to arouse the consciences of the other characters and of the audience. After reading the play, I composed music that I hoped would evoke the inner distress of the central character. [Group Theatre co-founder Harold] Clurman and Elia Kazan, the director, agreed that Quiet City needed a free and imaginative treatment. They and the cast… struggled valiantly to make the play convincing, but after two try-out performances in April [1939], Quiet City was dropped. From its 1941 premiere, Copland’s nighttime urban pastorale has needed no programmatic context, except perhaps its title, to make it one of his most popular scores. “Since it is mostly quiet, it fills a niche in concert programs,” the composer modestly remarked. But we know better: Along with Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Ives’s The Unanswered Question, it ranks as one of America’s most contemplative musical meditations. Recommended recording: Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon) FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN Born 31 March 1732; Rohrau, Austria Died 31 May 1809; Vienna, Austria Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major Composed: 1792 Premiere: 9 March 1792; London, England For nearly 30 years, beginning in 1761, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy was Haydn’s patron and employer. The Esterházy family was among the richest and most influential of the Hungarian nobility, and Nikolaus’s musical tastes and requirements shaped the traditions at the Esterházy court. Across the years, at various times and in various combinations, Haydn’s duties—both as composer and music director—included instrumental music (symphonies, concerti, divertimenti, chamber music, etc.), church music, opera, and cantatas to commemorate special occasions. Prince Nikolaus died on 28 September 1790. Prince Anton, his son and successor, did not share his father’s love of music. He dismissed the orchestra, retaining only the Feldmusik (wind band for out-of-doors music). Haydn was kept on at full salary, as the titular Kapellmeister. Lacking obligations of any kind, he decided to move from Eszterháza to Vienna, where he intended to live a quiet life. His plans quickly changed when J.P. Salomon, a German-born violinist turned London impresario, showed up on Haydn’s doorstep unannounced. “I am Salomon from London and have come to fetch you. Tomorrow we shall reach an agreement.” And so it went. By PROGRAM NOTES 15 December, Haydn and his new “manager” were on their way to England, where they arrived on New Year’s Day 1791. The master’s so-called “London” symphonies (No. 93-104) were composed for Salomon’s Episode 1- March 27 concert series, as was the Sinfonia Concertante. It’s quite likely that Haydn was encour- aged by the impresario to write such a piece, due to the popularity of a similar concerto by Ignance Pleyel. As with these MSO performances, the parts for solo violin (Salomon him- self), oboe, cello, and bassoon were played by members of the orchestra, rather than guest artists. The primary idea is one of chamber music, and the spirit is one of sharing. Musical Journeys In the opening Allegro, the four solo instruments take the spotlight almost immediately. The orchestra takes a backseat as the soloists engage in a spirited conversation; the jovial cadenza is democratically distributed among them. The songful Andante, set in the dominant key (F major), affords each of the principals an opportunity to embellish the basic thematic material while their colleagues add filigree around them. Mock-serious, opera- inspired recitativo passages for the solo violin open the finale, then Haydn brings back the mirthful exchange among the solo performers. Another operatic outburst, a surprising harmonic detour, and an equally unexpected pause bring us up short before this delightful work hastens to its sparkling conclusion. Recommended recording: Christopher Hogwood, Basel Chamber Orchestra (Arte Nova Classics) FRANZ SCHUBERT Born 31 January 1797; Vienna, Austria Died 19 November 1828; Vienna, Austria Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 “Unfinished” Composed: 1822 Premiere: 17 December 1865; Vienna, Austria Franz Schubert is the only great Viennese composer native to the city. He produced peerless masterpieces in orchestral, piano, and chamber music as well as song. His pre- eminence in the latter genre is especially noteworthy; Schubert’s melodies and expressive harmonies portrayed the text’s true meaning in a way that music before had not known. Schubert was only 25 when he composed the two movements of the Symphony in B minor. To this day, musicologists disagree as to why he failed to complete the symphony. Some have speculated that he stopped work in the middle of the scherzo in the fall of 1822 because he associated it with his initial outbreak of syphilis—or that he was distracted by the inspiration for his Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano, which occupied his time and energy immediately afterward. Others have theorized that Schubert may have sketched a finale that instead became the big B minor entr’acte for his incidental music to Rosamunde, but all evidence for this is circumstantial. Then again, says another, Schubert may have left the symphony incomplete because of the predominance of triple meter. The first movement is in 3/4, the second in 3/8, and the incomplete scherzo is also in 3/4. Rarely, if ever, does one find three consecutive movements in basically the same meter in symphonies, sonatas, or chamber works of the Viennese composers. Many believe Schubert regarded the work as complete. “I am convinced,” said conductor Nicolas Harnoncourt in a 2015 interview, “that Schubert found it impossible to continue after the second movement. Which is not to say he didn’t try. There are sketches for a few bars of a scherzo. But after Schubert finished the first two movements, and otewr out a neat copy, there came a time where he thought this cannot be continued. The form is perfect; there is simply nothing else to say.” Nearly 120 years ago, the great Austrian conductor Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) stated the case for this view in his monograph The Symphony Since Beethoven (1898): “I feel it PROGRAM NOTES is fortunate that it remained unfinished. The first movement is of a tragic dimension such as was attained by no symphonist except Beethoven and by Schubert himself only in his songs. The second theme, played by the cellos, contains one of the noblest inspirations a musician was ever given to utter. That which moved us deeply as an emotional struggle Episode 1- March 27 in the first movement dies away transfigured in the second. This conclusion is so satisfying that a desire for additional movement can hardly arise.” Likewise, the fate of the manuscript has been plagued by theories based on flimsy facts. A few decades ago, the disclosure of documents from the Hüttenbrenner family archives Musical Journeys shows that Schubert gave the manuscript of the Unfinished Symphony to Josef Hütten- brenner in 1823, to pass on to his brother Anselm as a private gift. This may have been in payment for a debt or an obligation. In any case, Anselm had a perfect right to retain the score. In 1865, it was given to the conductor of the orchestra of the Vienna Musikverein and performed for the first time in December of that year, 37 years after Schubert’s death. Allegro moderato The first movement, cast in sonata form, opens softly in the strings, followed by a theme shared by oboe and clarinet. Then the Unfinished brings us one of the most famous tunes in all of classical music, stated first by the cellos and then by the violins, to a gently synco- pated accompaniment. No less remarkable than the tune itself is that it, too, is unfinished— broken off in extraordinary gestures of pathos and drama. It is also a rare moment of sweet lyricism in a movement otherwise dark and troubled. Andante con moto The second movement, set in the somewhat unexpected key of E major, is calmer in spirit but not without moments of drama. It alternates two contrasting themes in sonatina form. In this lovely movement, a few eloquent details stand out: the first theme’s lyrical dialogue between low strings/brass/winds and high strings; the serene woodwind solos that soar over shifting chords; the plaintively still passage for violins, outlining a minor chord, which introduces the second theme. It is upon this inspired moment, though with strange keys and chromatic harmonies, that Schubert later builds his gently lingering coda. Recommended Recording: George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra (Sony) MAURICE RAVEL Born 7 March 1875; Ciboure, France Died 28 December 1937; Paris, France Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.
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